Chapter 10 - The Father's Visit
Peter Miller entered Colonel Evelyn Shaw's conference room wearing a costly gray suit and a face that had practiced looking disappointed. He didn't glance at my knee. He looked at the Silver Star ribbon on the dress uniform hanging in its garment bag beside me.
"That decoration used to mean restraint," he said.
Colonel Shaw, freshly returned to post, set a recorder on the table. "General Miller, you are here as a civilian witness. Please answer the questions."
He acknowledged visiting the motor pool. He said he'd come to congratulate Brad and inspect the parade preparations, nothing more. The camera malfunction was a coincidence. The forged medical paperwork was news to him.
"Did you sign a transfer recommendation for Staff Sergeant Bell?" Rowan asked.
"I made a phone call. I didn't issue an order."
"You were retired by then. Why did a unit commander accept your recommendation?"
Peter's jaw tightened. "We were friends."
Shaw leaned forward. "Friendship isn't a source of military authority."
He turned to me at last. "My son can be difficult. That's not a crime. Sergeant, surely you can see how a public allegation would damage this command before a governor's visit."
"I can see what happened to my leg," I said. "I can't see why you came to watch him train."
His expression slipped. Just once. It was enough to tell me he had expected gratitude or fear, not a question.
After he left, Rowan showed Shaw the visitor sign-in. The time put Peter inside the motor pool before my injury, not after it as he'd claimed.
May you like
Shaw looked toward the closed door. "Call him back."
But Peter Miller's driver had already taken him through the main gate.
